Reaper

A man dressed as the Grim Reaper robbed an Orlando bank Wednesday, held a gun to a customer's head and fired a shot as he fled.The costumed man entered the Sun Bank at 4582 S. Kirkman Road at 10:30 a.m., instantly drawing the attention of the 10 employees and four customers. He wore a black cape, black hood and a skull mask.''He walked in kind of hunched over,'' Orlando police spokesman Sgt. Mike Holloway said. ''He was acting the part.''He held a gun to the head of an off-duty, uniformed Orange County corrections officer and demanded the bank's money.

This is to the people stealing the ducks on 434, behind the restaurants and auto import business: Leave them alone! They live in a fenced pond and people love to watch them. You have no right to steal baby ducks, duck eggs, or any ducks at all! Hope they catch you red-handed soon! It seems strange that when a storm heads to the south or southeastern coast it is just another storm. But let it head to D.C. or New York City and it's like armageddon. I guess we don't count. In response to ticked off at elderly men: I happen to be married to one of these elderly men who makes conversation with waitresses (and waiters, too)

Premiering tonight on Court TV: The story of the Orange City funeral director who stabbed his wife to death, then buried her in the same casket with an old woman. But the story has shifted to Seattle. The names have changed. And film director John Waters plays the Groom Reaper. "Why is it that the cops are never around when you need them, but as soon as you murder your wife, they're all over you?" the Groom Reaper asks. The Groom Reaper opens and closes `Til Death Do Us Part, an anthology series that debuts with back-to-back episodes.

How about that "Grey's Anatomy" season finale? One fan sure isn't happy with series creator Shonda Rhimes and the way Rhimes promoted the death of a supposedly beloved character. If you haven't seen the episode, spoiler alert. The reader says: "The Rhimes hype machine got us again, Hal! Lexie? She agonized over [killing] Lexie? What a letdown. Yang, Derek, Chief, Bailey, maybe Sloan. Those are deaths worth agonizing over!" What did you think? Rhimes tells E!

NEW YORK -- If you've never seen a presidential candidate dressed as the Grim Reaper, you might consider a visit to Bourbon Street in New Orleans this summer, when Gene Amondson goes out to rally support for his campaign. Amondson, a 64-year-old ordained minister, is the presidential not-very-hopeful of the Prohibition Party, the United States' oldest third party, which has nominated a presidential candidate in every election since 1872. This season is no different. Despite a rift between factions and the party's minuscule following -- it has about 30 members -- it will again field a candidate.

A ring bearing the likeness of the Grim Reaper could have etched a pattern on the neck of strangulation victim Sara Robles, a medical examiner testified Tuesday.The ring was on the finger of Scott Mansfield, 36, when he was arrested on charges of murdering Robles, a 31-year-old mother of six. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.Dr. Julia Victoria Martin, an associate medical examiner formerly based in Orange County, explained to jurors the similarities between the silver ring and elliptical black marks on Robles' neck.

FOREMOST INSURANCE Group, the nation's largest mobile home insurer, Thursday proposed raising rates in Florida as much as 107 percent and dropping 25,000 customers in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. ''We've been non-renewed by insurance companies . . . and we likewise have to take action,'' said Robert Woudstra, treasurer and chief financial officer. ''We saw the grim reaper and we know what can happen to us.''

Be it Ford or Mercedes, no car escapes the grip of the automotive Grim Reaper when he comes calling. With ghoulish glee and a tow truck, he cruises the asphalt, ready to carry another victim to that final dead end - the dead auto zone.Many a car left along the highway has met the Reaper. Some drivers of ailing autos abandon them along the roadside, happy to have the Reaper relieve the car - and driver - of its misery. Other unsuspecting drivers leave their cars by the road a little too long, intending to repair them only to find out that the Reaper arrived more swiftly than they did.The mythic Reaper manifests himself in the land of the living through regular guys just doing their jobs with a tow truck.

About 70 students walked to a makeshift graveyard last week to meet the Grim Reaper.What they found there was eye-opening. The students had been tapped to play dead, representing the number of people killed each day in drunken-driving accidents nationwide.Their classmates at Lake Brantley High School were amazed at the number. It was like a mob scene, said Lara Pizycki, 17, a senior class representative who helped arrange the demonstration.''We got a lot of attention,'' she said. ''I think they're actually beginning to realize what a big impact drugs and alcohol have on everyday life.

GRETNA, La. -- Two assistant district attorneys were rebuked for wearing ties decorated with a hangman's noose and the Grim Reaper at a hearing in a capital-murder case. Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick said he told Donnie Rowan and Cameron Mary that the ties were inappropriate and that they should never wear anything like them to work again. "They were a joke, although a poor joke," Connick said. "People do those kinds of things. I saw one defense attorney wear a tie that said, `Not guilty.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon plans to introduce an important innovation on its most advanced unmanned aircraft next year that will vastly increase the ability of the aerial drones to simultaneously track militants. Unmanned MQ-9 Reaper aircraft now produce a single video feed as they fly continuously over surveillance routes. The new technology initially will increase the number of video feeds to 12 and eventually to 65. Like the Reaper and its earlier counterpart, the Predator, the newest technology program has been given a fearsome name: the Gorgon Stare, named for the mythological creature that turns unwitting victims to stone.

DAVIE -- While the tape of the Dolphins' well-balanced 19-14 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday night contains mostly positive moments, the keen eyes of Coach Tony Sparano, General Manager Jeff Ireland and Vice President of Football Operations Bill Parcells will certainly point out small mistakes made by fringe players that could spell the difference between a hefty paycheck or the unemployment line. Because the Dolphins have 44 new players, including 22 rookies, the locker room may as well be on edge until the roster must be pared from 74 to the final 53 by Aug. 30. "I feel like everybody is on the bubble," said running back Patrick Cobbs, who thus far has survived three different regimes in the last three seasons.

John Connolly's novels are the very definition of noir. The Irish author, who sets his tales in America, has become a master at the intensely dark thriller with undertones of western and horror novels. Connolly also imbues his novels with a prose so rich that he invests a kind of poetry in his violent tales. Connolly's eighth novel is no exception, but The Reapers takes a different route with the characters. Instead of mournful private detective Charlie Parker, The Reapers is the story of Louis and Angel, Parker's violent associates and the most enigmatic characters in Connolly's novels.

If you liked ABC's schedule last fall, you should be thrilled this autumn. The Disney-owned network Tuesday added just two new series. The CW said it will pick up three new series, including a spinoff of Beverly Hills, 90210. ABC had added eight new series last fall. Four didn't survive: Women's Murder Club, Big Shots, Carpoolers and Cavemen. The other cancellations include Men in Trees, Cashmere Mafia, October Road, Notes From the Underbelly and Miss Guided. Oprah's Big Give will not return, because Oprah Winfrey didn't want to continue, said Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment.

NEW YORK -- If you've never seen a presidential candidate dressed as the Grim Reaper, you might consider a visit to Bourbon Street in New Orleans this summer, when Gene Amondson goes out to rally support for his campaign. Amondson, a 64-year-old ordained minister, is the presidential not-very-hopeful of the Prohibition Party, the United States' oldest third party, which has nominated a presidential candidate in every election since 1872. This season is no different. Despite a rift between factions and the party's minuscule following -- it has about 30 members -- it will again field a candidate.

In her 11th medical thriller, Tess Gerritsen turns from the exploits of Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles to give readers a historical thriller about a serial killer -- known as the West End Reaper -- loose on the streets of 1830s Boston. The tale of crime from a bygone era emerges as the parallel plot to a modern-day story of a divorcee who finds human bones buried in her Weston yard. Isles appears briefly, but her presence is not essential to Gerritsen's story.

ORANGE COUNTY -- Orange County deputies searched Tuesday for a man who lives in the woods and has a Grim Reaper tattoo who they think choked an elderly woman and stole her car, an agency spokeswoman said. Jean Wagner, 72, was checking her mail last week at a bank of mailboxes at Shadow Hills Mobile Home Park in east Orange County when, a Sheriff's Office report says, Elijah Severance Pellerin, 26, came up behind her and put her in a chokehold. "Relax. You are going to pass out," the man told Wagner, she recalled to investigators.

PASADENA, Calif. -- A notorious Central Florida crime will be portrayed in a new Court TV series about marriages that end in murder. Til Death Do Us Part, which debuts in the fall, will depict the story of Mark Villella, an Orange City funeral director who stabbed his wife, Exelee, to death in 1999. He then buried her in the same casket with an old woman. Villella was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Series creator Jeff Lieberman picked the Villella case as his favorite. "It is ironic," Lieberman says.

Premiering tonight on Court TV: The story of the Orange City funeral director who stabbed his wife to death, then buried her in the same casket with an old woman. But the story has shifted to Seattle. The names have changed. And film director John Waters plays the Groom Reaper. "Why is it that the cops are never around when you need them, but as soon as you murder your wife, they're all over you?" the Groom Reaper asks. The Groom Reaper opens and closes `Til Death Do Us Part, an anthology series that debuts with back-to-back episodes.

ORANGE COUNTY -- Orange County deputies searched Tuesday for a man who lives in the woods and has a Grim Reaper tattoo who they think choked an elderly woman and stole her car, an agency spokeswoman said. Jean Wagner, 72, was checking her mail last week at a bank of mailboxes at Shadow Hills Mobile Home Park in east Orange County when, a Sheriff's Office report says, Elijah Severance Pellerin, 26, came up behind her and put her in a chokehold. "Relax. You are going to pass out," the man told Wagner, she recalled to investigators.